Love of running sparked Petraeus, Broadwell bond

WASHINGTON – In interviews with Paula Broadwell conducted earlier this year, the biographer and paramour of Gen. David Petraeus said a mutual devotion to running strengthened the pair’s bond.

“I think that was a big part of the reason we had such rapport. I had gone to West Point, we shared this love of running and fitness,” Broadwell told the Seattle- based Bob Rivers show in February.

Broadwell told Rivers she poured on the speed to keep up with Petraeus on a run from the Pentagon to the National Mall and back.

“The first time I ran with him … I thought I would test him,” Broadwell says in her interview.

“We could run 6-minute miles,” said Broadwell. “We started at the Pentagon … I notice he starts to pick up the pace … at some point I turned off the recorder and we just ran the last 2 and 1/2 miles at a 6- minute-mile pace.”

In a January interview, Broadwell told Don Imus on Fox Business that she first met Petraeus while in graduate studies at Harvard University:

“I went up to him and said I’m working on this research and would love to get your feedback or connect with folks in your military organization and share these ideas. He gave me his card. We kept in touch.”

In the interview with Imus, Broadwell spoke glowingly about Petraeus’s wife, Holly.

“He is married to Holly Petraeus who is a wonderful military spouse who has done so much for their children and for children of fallen soldiers. I respect her immensely,” said Broadwell.

Perhaps prophetically, Broadwell is named in her Bismark, N.D. high school year book as “most likely to be remembered.”